The Embu County government payroll has minors in employment against labour laws, Deputy Governor Kinyua Mugo revealed on Monday.
“You will be surprised that we found even minors in our payroll. We have a lot of manipulation of documentation…we have others with no form of qualification employed in permanent and pensionable terms,” he said, albeit without offering any evidence.
He added: “We must do a proper staff audit to weed out the mess. If you have no National Identification card to prove age…you must leave since it is the law.”
Mr Mugo, a brother of former Water Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki, said the Martin Wambora administration (2013-2022) was a governance tragedy.
While Ms Kariuki was in Jubilee and made an unsuccessful attempt at the Nyandarua County governor’s seat, Mr Mugo threw in his lot with the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.
Mr Mugo said the county employed staff who had not acquired national identity cards, those past retirement age and others with dubious qualifications.
Speaking on Inooro TV, Mr Mugo said that while Embu had the potential of collecting Sh900 million annually in local revenues, its officers collected only Sh600 million and remitted only Sh300 million.
The county receives Sh5.2 billion as equitable share and Sh1 billion in conditional grants from the National Treasury.
“They would even procure medicines for our hospitals but intercept the consignments before arrival, siphon the drugs and end up delivering empty cartons in the healthcare stores,” he claimed.
He said some of the corrupt revenue officers had been kicked out and weekly revenues had grown from Sh5 million to Sh20 million, raising expectations that the figure will hit Sh960 million by the close of the new administration’s first year in power.
“We have the ridiculous situation where we have inherited Sh2.2 billion as pending bills and more drivers than there are vehicles. We have inherited a heap of a mess,” he said.
Mr Mugo said Governor Cecily Mbarire was cleaning up the mess.
“We are lucky to have Ms Mbarire as our governor. She is experienced, understanding, sympathetic and with the interest of transforming her county and people’s lives,” Mr Mugo said.
He added that “we have to audit the pending bills because we have detected blatant corruption in them”.
Different companies, he charged, were making claims on the same projects.
“This is where you see the county billed for one project by several companies citing different claims. That is corruption that we will not honour,” he said.
After the pending bills are audited, he said, the county will create a payment schedule for genuine ones.
“But we will kick out those fraudulently employed. Those who are supposed to be retired will exit. Those employed without proper qualifications will be reassigned,” he said.
“There are those employed in high county offices yet their qualifications deserve sweeping jobs. We will deploy them where their qualifications are.”
He said President William Ruto has become a critical pillar in helping counties deliver on their mandates.
“He has been calling us, asking us about our challenges. He was instrumental in pairing me and Mbarire after I lost the Manyatta parliamentary seat primaries,” he said.
“Dr Ruto called me, counselled me not to decamp and partner with Ms Mbarire to deliver the county to the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party.”
He said Dr Ruto is a hands-on President who holds great promise for the country if he is supported.
“Were it not for President William Ruto’s phone calls to UDA losers in Embu begging them not to decamp, Azimio would have carried the day. But Dr Ruto has an instinctive trait that foresees and forestall challenges,” he said.
He said Dr Ruto had assured the county of help to fight hard drugs and alcoholism, vices he said are killing area youths and turning them into zombies.
The County Integrated Development Plan, he said, is being finalised and its focus will be addressing water shortages especially in the arid and semi-arid lands of Mbeere North and Mbeere South.
“Those are the two sub-counties where we want to create a county food basket. We will tap water from Tana River and give area people irrigation water. They have vast lands and the high temperatures in the two areas are good for agriculture,” he said.
Mr Mugo added that 87 percent of Embu families are farmers and agriculture, if supported with cottage industries, can create wealth and employment.
“We can add value to our dairy, cereals, macadamia, miraa, horticulture and tubers to increase earnings and battle food insecurity,” he said.
“We can make clean and safe liquor from our own sorghum and fruits. We can add value to our muguka and pack it into powdered sachets.”
He urged area people to be patient, saying they will start seeing better services.
“You have started seeing us cleaning up our garbage-stained towns. We are supplying water for livestock affected by drought. We have a relief food committee mobilising help for people devastated by the drought. We are committed to improving the quality of life in Embu,” he said. BY DAILY NATION